Madison makes school board appointment

MADISON - Terri Johnson, one of two candidates nominated for the Madison school board tonight, was appointed to the post by the City Council.

She and Stan Schmidt were among the five candidates interviewed for the position. The council voted 6-1 for Johnson.

Councilman Steve Haraway nominated Stan Schmidt and did not vote for Johnson's appointment.

"The folks who applied this year were some of the best we've ever seen come through, and we could pick any one of them and not go wrong," Councilman Bob Wagner said. "It was really hard to choose."

After nearly four hours of interviewing five candidates nearly two weeks ago, each council member ranked their choices 1 through 5. Each number was assigned a value, and the candidate with the most points was selected as the council's nomination presented by Councilman Jerry Jennings, the council's liaison to the school board.

Johnson, a lecturer at UAH, has a bachelor's degree from Rhodes College, and a master's degree and a doctorate in applied mathematics from UAH.

Johnson replaces Julie Mills, who decided not to seek reappointment after serving a six-year term. Also interviewed were Emily Cook, Jacqueline Do and Sheila McFerran.